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Latest Foot and Mouth Reports: Iran, Saudi Arabia

GLOBAL - The latest Foot and Mouth Disease outbreaks to be reported to the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) occurred in Saudi Arabia and Iran.

In Saudi Arabia, an outbreak on a farm in the Ar Riyadh region caused 502 cases in cattle and 60 cases in sheep, amounting to all the animals on the farm.

After the detection of the outbreak, 150,000 head of cattle and sheep were vaccinated, but none were destroyed.

Samples were collected and sent to the Central Veterinary Laboratory in Riyadh, and also to the OIE Reference Laboratory for FMD, The Pirbright Institute (United Kingdom). Genotyping showed that it was G-VII strain.

In Iran, fattening calves from a village in Qom province were affected. There were 15 cases out of a total of 1250 cattle, and two of these animals died.

The report from Iran's Veterinary Organisation said that the samples were collected from fattening calves illegally introduced in a big fattening complex. The origin of these calves was traced to Miyandoab live animal market located in West Azarbijan province.

Testing showed that this outbreak was also caused by the genotype VII strain.